Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-06-09

- O~0N~~OADe
/ ly conferred upon Congress as the pow
er to levy taxes or make war, and, in
my judgment. the time has arrived
when it should be fully and vigorously
exercised. This power has been as
serted by the act of 1866 providing for
the election of Senators, and no COM
plant has ever been made of its consti-
nationality or expediency. 1t has not
1 been exercised as to members OF the
House of Representatives, from the
strong desire to avoid any interference
with popular elections in the States;
but the existence of the power has been
affirmed by the Supreme Court of the
United States in the case ex parte Var
borough and others, decided at the Oc-
tober term 1883, in which the Court
said:
That Government whose essen
tial character is republican. whose
executive head and legislative body are
both elective, whose most numerous
and powerful branch of the Legisla-
ture is elected by the people directly,
has no power by appropriate laws to
secure this election from the influence
of violence and corruption, and of
fraud, is proposition so startling as to
arrest attention and command gravest
consideration. If this Government is
anything more than mere aggrega-
ton of delegated agents of other States
and Governments, it must have the
power to protect the elections on which
its existence depends from violence or
corruption.
In the later days of the Roman Re
public the controlling elements in cleo
tons were bribery force and corruption,
and this was the cause of its fall. So in
ours, il elections are controlled by the
meanest frauds and crimes instead of the
popular will, it will be the end of the
free government. The mission of the
Republican party will never end until
every legal voter can cast one honest
vote, and no more, and have that vote
counted.
A vital difference between the two
great parties is shown in their choice of
officers and agents to conduct the Gov
eminent. The Republican party cher
ished with patriotic pride all the great
achieSements of Union soldiers and all
the grand results of the war. Every
measure for the benefit of Union soldiers
received prompt attention, and a gener-
GUS system of pensions was the work of
that party. Union soldiers in every
rank and condition of life have been
preferred by the Republican party for
local, State and national offices. Can
this be said of the Democratic party ?
The controlling elements of that party
look with prejudice upon Union soldiers,
and do not, with rare exceptions, confer
upon them place and power Ten rebel
soldiers are appointed to Office to one
Union soldier. This Administration has
emphasized this feeling in the most
striking manner by appointing to the
chief offices of the Government, es-
lpecially in the foreign service, the most
distinguished leaders of the rebel service
More than majority of all the leading
officers who now represent us in the
diplomatic and consular service abroad
are Confederate soldiers or civilians. |
hold in my hand list of ninetv-one
persons now ministers, consuls, secre-
taries of legation, and the like, in most
of the chief countries of the world, every
one of whom gained his distinction of
greater or lesser degree by service in
the Confederate army or the Confederate
cause. Many of those appointed in the
North were i'll sympathy with the
rebellion. This is so marked that every
nation to which these gentlemen are
accredited may fairly conclude that it
was the rebel cause that triumphed and
not the Union cause. Nearly all these
are of the extreme school of Southern
politics. One of them refused to ask to
have his disabilities removed. Another,
on a public holiday when the flag of our
country was floating over the city of
Washington, turned to it and said: "How
| hate that flag" and yet when checked,
added: "But would fight for it now. :"
The body of these men are more fitted to
represent the Confederate States than the
Union people have no wish to dis
criminate against those who in good
faith acquiesced in the result of the war,
but Go think it shame that within
twenty-five years after the war is over,
the Democratic party in power should
emphasize to all the world their sympa-
thy with the Confederate cause
The President has not been free from
fault in this respect, The bias of his
mind is shown in a recent letter to the
committee who invited him to attend the
unwilling of the monument erected to
the memory of John G. Calhoun. He
says he believes at would be well if all
he Calhoun thought and all he be-
lieved and taught, and all his aspirations
were better known and understood. y
What would Andrew jackson have said
to such sentiment as this if uttered in
his presence in the name of the Demo-
cratic party?
Nor can it be said of the President
| that he has shown gratitude to the
Union army or satisfaction for the sue
cess of the Union cause, or sympathy for
men who exposed their lives for the
preservation of their country His in
Vulnerable vetoes of private pension
bills, his indifference to the sufferings of
invalid and INDECENT Union soldiers
scattered through the country, do not
Indicate that feeling of gratitude which
believe is universal among all the loyal
people of the United States. The Demo
cratic party, though containing in its
ranks many honorable and patriotic
men. is not the representative of the
loyal element of the country, but is con-
fessedly composed of the body of adj
herentS to the rebel cause, reinforced bv
the element we thought disloyal in the
North and those who follow blindly,
without questioning, the name, mem
cries and aspirations of the Democratic
! party, and the scattered victims of dis
appointment, inevitable in political life
| do not wish to utter one word to re-
vive the animosities of the war. That
was fought out manfully and bravely by
the two contending parties with such
courage as to inspire the respect of each
side for the other, and to its logical
conclusion Of the complete success of
the Union cause All that | ask is that
the defeated party will honorably fulfil
the terms of their surrender. and that
the results of the war may be respected
and observed with honor by Confeder-
ates.and firmly, but with charity and kind
ness by Union soldiers and citizens.
For this | appeal alike to Confederate
and Union soldiers, to the blue and the